Here we go! The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships get underway and the fields are loaded for every event, across the board, and both the individual races and team races should provide unrivaled excitement amongst collegiate track and field fans.

With so much going on, we break down five of the events we’re most looking forward to.

Men’s High Jump: It’s Derek Drouin (Indiana) versus Erik Kynard (Kansas State) one last time. These two have been battling quite a bit and they’ll have one last collegiate match-up to prove who’s best. One needs to remember that in 2012, not only did these two battle at the NCAA level, but they battled at the international level, with Kynard winning the silver medal at the London Olympics, while Drouin won the bronze. To have two Olympic medalists in a NCAA final is a special event.

At the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships earlier this year, Drouin got the best of Kynard, leaping 7-8.5 to take home the NCAA title. This outdoor season the two have shown they are taking their abilities to a whole new level. At the Pre Classic this past weekend, Kynard finished second, while Drouin finished third, both leaping new personal best marks of 7-9 (Kynard won having fewer misses).

This weekend the two go head-to-head and should provide one of the best shows of the entire weekend. There is plenty of talent in the field to see big leaps across the board, but Kynard and Drouin is one of the best rivalries in the sport right now and should be the focus of all fans in attendance.

Women’s 5,000m: As we’ve said, track and field needs rivalries and one of the best  at the moment is that between Abbey D’Agostino (Dartmouth) and Jordan Hasay (Oregon). While D’Agostino has had the upper hand seemingly the entire 2012-2013 school year, Hasay always gives the Dartmouth junior a run for her money and with both athletes being fresh for the 5,000m, expect theatrics and fireworks. It will certainly be a tactical battle between these two, as D’Agostino goes for a repeat of her NCAA 5k title last spring, while Hasay eyes her first outdoor track title in her final collegiate race.

While D’Agostino is the favorite, and Hasay will be the crowd favorite among the Eugene track faithful, don’t be surprised to see Alphine Tuliamuk-Bolton (Wichita State) and Betsy Saina (Iowa State) mixing it up for the win. Both will be doubling back from the 10,000m, which puts them at a disadvantage against the fresh legs of D’Agostino and Hasay, but both stars have shown for years they will be in contention when it matters most.

Behind the quartet up front, American talent will lead the chase back. Megan Goethals (Washington) and Chelsea Oswald (Kentucky) are both running the 10k/5k double, but expect them to challenge for top five finishes.

The sleeper in the field though is Emily Sisson (Providence). She is not running the 10,000m, tends to run strong in championship races and is coming on strong at the end of the season. She could push for a top three or four finish.

Women’s 400m Hurdles: Remember the wild ride of Georganne Moline (Arizona) in 2012? The one where she ran great all season long leading up to the NCAA Championships, only to fall in her prelim and not qualify for the final. She then stepped it up big, running new PRs while making the Olympic team with a second place finish at the USA Olympic Track and Field Trials, then finished an impressive fifth at the Olympics. What a year!

This year, it seems as though Pac-12 rival Kori Carter (Stanford) could be the star on the rise. Carter has been a rising star for years, dominating the prep scene and now the collegiate scene, but it’s her dominance over the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles in 2013 that is gaining her recognition. At the Pac-12 Championships, Carter bested Moline, winning the 400m hurdles 54.21-54.54 over the Arizona senior, while also winning the 100m hurdle title.

Fast-forward to the West Regional, where Carter once again edged Moline, this time by a 54.50-54.59 margin. While Carter will have the rounds of the 100m hurdles to handle, she’s clearly the favorite heading into the weekend. Moline does a bit of momentum on her side after her runner-up 54.75 effort at the Pre Classic this past weekend, so expect a heated battle from these two that should run all the way to the finish line.

Men’s 800m: Rounds of racing, deep and talented fields and a crowd that will undoubtedly go crazy over the final 100m as the two-lap stars go charging to the finish will make this one of the best events of the weekend. University of Oregon standout Elijah Greer has to be considered the pre-race favorite, running in front of his home crowd in his final weekend of racing in a Duck uniform. He enters with the top time of the outdoor season, running 1:46.20 back in late April.

Right on Greer’s heels will be Arkansas teammates Patrick Rono and Leoman Momoh. Rono has an outdoor best of 1:46.49 and is having a huge 2013 campaign. Meanwhile, Momoh is looking to capture the wave he rode indoors when he ran 1:46.07, the best time by a collegiate athlete this year.

Not to be outdone, Penn State’s Cas Loxsom and freshman Brannon Kidder are both contenders for the title. Loxsom has proven himself a star in the sport for the past few years. He ran a 1:46.77 clocking at the Mt. SAC Relays, while Kidder showed he’s the top 800m freshman in the country this year, finishing right behind his veteran teammate in 1:47.23.

With numerous other top five challengers in the field, the 800m promises to be exciting. Handling multiple races over a short timeframe is always a big question, but the pre-race favorites to contend for the win have that status for a reason.

All the Relays: Yup, all of them. Why? Perhaps it’s because the 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay are two of the most exciting events on the track. It could be because the United States loves all things fast (fast cars, fast technology, fast runners). It could also be because there is always the craziness of exchange zones and the off-chance a team might drop the baton. Whew, it’s exciting!

Out of all that, the main reason why there is so much anticipation around the 4x100m and 4x400m relays, both men’s and women’s, is because all four races will factor so much into the overall team scores. Lets break it down:

In the men’s 4x100m relay, second ranked Arkansas enters as the fifth seed, while fourth ranked Florida is seeded third in the event. On the women’s side, top-ranked Kansas has a pre-race seed of number one, while fourth ranked LSU is seeded third and fifth ranked Oregon is seeded seventh.

In the 4x400m relay, top-ranked Kansas is seeded fifth in the women’s race, second ranked Texas A&M is seeded fourth, third ranked Florida is seeded tenth and Oregon is again seeded seventh. In the men’s 4x4, all top five ranked teams are seeded in the top seven. Top-ranked Texas A&M is seeded first, second ranked Arkansas seeded fifth, third ranked Oregon seeded second, fourth ranked Florida seeded fourth and the fifth ranked Seminoles of Florida State are seeded seventh.

Let the games begin!

Which event(s) are you most looking forward to? Which do you think will provide the best battles? Discuss the team races and individual races in our College Track Talk forum.